For my Capstone, I wanted to truly test my skills as a writer. So, I decided to attempt at writing a novel. Specifically, I wanted to aim for a word range between 150,000–200,000words. Throughout my life, I’ve only been writing short stories; the longest one that I’ve ever written was around 20,000 words long, so this is a very large jump for me. I feel like I’ve read more than enough novels in my life to understand the general plot structure, such as build-up, exposition, character development, etc. As a result, I think that I’d be able to pull it off.

However, there’s one other thing that I want to test myself on as a writer. When it comes to my writing style, I’m very literal and up front when it comes to my use of words. I’m very conservative–hesitant, even–to try and use things like metaphors, similes, and symbolism. I want to try and change that in this project, even if it ends up hurting the story overall because of it. It’s a risk, but I won’t know if I won’t try.

In the end, even though it isn’t finished, I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot as a writer. Even looking back, I can see a million different ways to change the story as is.